AN INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER OF TRANSLATION STUDIES -- NEW SERIESNUMBER TWENTY SIX / AUGUST 1996 -- ISSN 0792-058X

TRANSST, an international newsletter of
translation studies,
is published by the M. Bernstein Chair of Translation Theory and the
Porter
Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University (Israel). It
is
edited by Gideon Toury, with the help of José Lambert
(University
of Leuven, Belgium).Editorial and administrative
address: The M. Bernstein
Chair
of Translation Theory, Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Humanities,
Tel Aviv,
Israel. e-mail: toury@spinoza.tau.ac.il;
tel.: +972-3-6407022; fax: +972-3-6422141; +972-3-6408980.

UPCOMING CONFERENCES

The Warwick Seminar on Literary Translation will be held on December
8-14, 1996. The seminar is intended to illuminate how literary translation is
produced today, how translations function in their new linguistic and cultural
settings, and what factors influence the decisions taken by translators and
the strategies they employ. It will explore several recent developments in the
field of Translation Studies with special emphasis on intercultural transfer,
the (in)visibility of the translator, the status of translators, translation
and gender, and many more.

The School of Translation and Interpreting of the University of Geneva is
organizing an International Workshop on

Methodological Issues in Interpreting Issues

at the Centro Stefano Franscini, Ascona/Ticino (Switzerland), January 12-17,
1997. The Workshop will bring together methodological approaches from a
variety of disciplines that have a direct bearing on interpreting studies with
the aim of linking these to the study of all aspects of interpreting, the
selection of interpreters and interpreter training. A number of experts will
present research methodology from their own fields of specialization with a
view to how these approaches could fruitfully be adapted to and employed in
interpreting research. Each presentation will be followed by in-depth
discussion among all participants.

King Fahd Advanced School of Translation in Tangier (Morocco) is
organizing a Conference on

Translation in the Arab World.

The Conference will be held on November 27-30, 1996. Contributions are invited
on the following: Translation Studies; The Teaching of Translation in the Arab
World; Legal, Scientific and Technical Translation; Literary Translation;
Translation and Advanced Technologies; Translation and the Media;
Interpreting; Terminology.

ICLA TRANSLATION STUDIES WORKSHOP, 1997

The Translation Studies Committee of the International Comparative Literature
Association is organizing one of the major sections of the 15th Congress of
ICLA, to be held at the Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden, from August 16 to August
22, 1997, under the general title of:

Reconstructing Cultural Memory:
Translation, Scripts, Literacy

The aim is to explore the interactions of translation and writing systems, and
the resulting changes in specific cultures and literatures. ("Writing systems"
is taken in a broad sense to include cultural conventions, canons, and even
questions of style.)

While there will be openness to a variety of new approaches the general
framework will be descriptive-explanatory, target-culture oriented papers
which deal in some way with how translation correlates with cultural
change.

Translators have invented alphabets, helped build languages and written
dictionaries. They have contributed to the emergence of national literatures,
the dissemination of knowledge and the spread of religions. Importers of
foreign cultural values and key players at some of the great moments of
history, translators and interpreters have played a determining role in the
development of their societies and have been fundamental to the unfolding of
intellectual history itself.

Published under the auspices of the International Federation of Translators
(FIT), Translators through History is organized around nine themes that
illustrate the main areas in which translators have distinguished themselves
through the ages. Nearly fifty scholars from twenty different countries have
helped to compile this survey. For a French edition see TRANSST 25 (April
1996), p. 10. (JB)

This reference book on the innumerable and increasing ways that the law
intersects with translation and interpretation features essays by scholars and
professionals from the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel,
Japan, and Sweden. The essays range from sophisticated treatments of
historical and hence philosophical variations in concept and practice to
detailed practical advice on self-education. Essays show a particular concern
for the challenges of courtroom discourse when the parties not only use
different languages but operate from different cultural and legal traditions. (JB)

Peter Jansen, ed. Translation and the Manipulation of Discourse: Selected
Papers of the CERA Research Seminars in Translation Studies 1992-1993.
Leuven: CETRA - The Leuven Research Center for Translation, Communication and
Cultures, 1995. 305 pp. [Publications of the CERA Chair for
Translation, Communication and Cultures, 3.]

In 1989 the Catholic University of Leuven created the CERA Chair, a research
program in translation studies, in order to promote training in the study of
translational phenomena and to stimulate high level research into the cultural
functions of translation. Every year talented young scholars gather for one
month of research in Leuven under the supervision of a team of prominent
researchers, and of the CERA Professor, an outstanding scholar in translation
studies who is annually nominated.

Here, a selection of the papers they submitted after having completed the
seminar of 1992 and 1993 is presented, 17 in number. This work not only meets
international publication standards, but also clearly demonstrates that the
young generation of translation scholars assumes an attitude of healthy
skepticism toward their teachers. (José Lambert)

By emphasizing the notion of factor set, this book fosters the awareness that
successful and adequate translation requires properly accounting for the
pertinent translation factors in each individual case. The factor approach
gives translation criticism an objective yardstick for assessing the quality
of translations. The authors explore the linguistic factors, including
treatment of illocution and its indeterminacy, and perlocution, as well as
non-linguistic factors such as factuality, situation, and culture. The book
also includes aspects more genuinely linked to the notion of translation
itself, such as translation units and word class and the nature and status of
factors in translation theory. (SUNY)

HEIDE SCHMIDT-CROME (1943-1996)

Heide Schmidt-Crome, Professor of Translation Studies for Russian at the
Institute of Linguistics and Translation Studies at Leipzig University, died
on February 24, 1996, at the age of 52. A student, and later colleague, of
Otto Kade, Gert Jaeger and Albrecht Neubert, she can be considered a younger
representative of the Leipzig School. For 15 years, she was head of group on
Russian translation studies and for two years - head of the newly created
Institute of Linguistics and Translation Studies.

Prof. Schmidt's research interests were extensive. They included comparative
linguistics, stylistics, translation studies, didactics and teaching of
translation and language for special purposes. She published about 50 articles
in edited books and journals and edited three books, including Interferenz
in der Translation (Leipzig, 1989). (C.Sch.)

CHAIM RABIN (1915-1996)

The editors of Target regret having to announce once again the death of
a pioneering scholar in Translation Studies, Prof. Chaim Rabin of the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. Professor Rabin was among the first Israeli scholars
to theorize on translation, in Hebrew as well as other languages. His most
influential article is probably "The Linguistics of Translation" (1958). One
of the most important contributions Prof. Rabin made to the study of actual
translation practices was the extended survey of Bible Translation he edited
and contributed some of its parts. This survey (in Hebrew) was first published
as an entry in Encyclopaedia biblica, 8 (1982), 737-870 and then in
book form (1984; 189 pp.).

DIRECTORY OF HISTORIANS OF TRANSLATION

The Committee for the History of Translation of FIT has just published the
third edition of the International Directory of Historians of
Translation. The number of scholars listed in the Directory is 180,
as against 68 in the first edition (1991) and 116 in the second (1993).
Historians of translation wishing to be included in later editions are kindly
requested to write to

NEW JOURNAL

Interpreting is a new International Journal of Research and Practice in
Interpreting. It will provide an open forum for interdisciplinary research in
all areas of interpreting: simultaneous, consecutive, media, conference,
court, community, teleconferencing, sign language and computer-assisted
interpreting, by encouraging cross-disciplinary inquiry into the process of
interpreting, its practice and the training of professional interpreters.
Interpreting, edited by Barbara Moser-Mercer and Dominic W. Massaro
and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company, aims to unite theory,
methodology and practice.

UPCOMING SEMINAR

The School of Translation in Toledo (Spain) is organizing the second seminar
on translation from Arabic and Hebrew into Spanish. The seminar will be held
on September 16-27, 1996.

A DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

Louise Brunette. Towards a Pedagogy of Revision (English-French
Translations) in a bilingual Country: Canada. University of Montreal.

Translations have been revised ever since translation exists. Nevertheless, it
seems that so far revision has not kept pace with the advances in Translation
Studies. This may be because translation revising has never been accounted for
as an occupation in itself. When this is done - and this is precisely what the
present dissertation attempted to do - one should be able to work out a method
for revising texts as well as a methodological approach for teaching it. Both
practice and teaching will mainly rely on a grid comprising four basic
criteria relating to the source text and/or the target text, namely text
coherence, text producer purpose, text environment and norm (especially in a
bilingual environment). These revision parameters ensure the quality of both
translation and revision and shed new light on translation assessment.

AUTHORS' STATEMENTS

Translating Ireland examines the history of translation activity in
Ireland throughout the ages. It analyses the widespread translation activity
in the Middle Ages and argues for a re-evaluation of the work of translators
from that period. The central role of translation in the political and
cultural upheaval of the 16th and 17th century is then considered,
particularly the theoretical responses of translators to changing political
conditions. Antiquarianism, the Celtic Revival and emergent nationalism in the
19th century are all bound up with translation and Translating Ireland
analyses the tensions and competing cultural allegiances of translators in the
18th and 19th century. Literary revival in both English and Irish looked to
translation as a source of creative energy and the new State saw translation
as both necessary and desirable. There is an analysis of the fortunes of
translation in Ireland in the 20th century, both as pragmatic activity in an
officially bilingual State and as a way of opening up the languages and
literatures of Ireland to the literatures and cultural experiences of other
peoples. (MC)

In this study, Focus on the Target Text, a functional model for
translation quality assessment is developed, based on two fundamental
elements: a set of instruments enabling one to compare source and target
texts, and a specific view on the relationships between the two texts, which
determines the method of analysis. The main focus here is on the target text
as an independent entity, whereas the study of the relationships between it
and the original has a secondary position. The practicability of the approach
is demonstrated by the analysis and comparison of four pairs of Spanish
non-literary texts and their translations into Dutch. An extensive account is
given of the current state of the applied branches of translation studies as
well as discourse analysis and textlinguistics. (JH)

* Marilyn Gaddis Rose, ed. Translation Horizons: Beyond the Boundaries
of Translation Spectrum: A Collection of Essays Situating and Proposing
New Directions and Major Issues in Translation Studies. State University
of New York at Binghamton: Center for Research in Translation, 1996. viii +
347 pp. $20 prepaid, $25 billed. ISSN 0890-4758. [Translation Perspectives,
IX.]

These are two comprehensive 20-week courses in translation method offering a
challenging and entertaining approach to the acquisition of translation
skills. This method has been piloted at the University of St. Andrews (United
Kingdom). Translation is presented as a problem-solving activity. Discussion,
examples and a full range of exercise work should enable students to acquire
the skills necessary for a broad range of translation problems. Examples are
drawn from a wide variety of material, from technical and commercial texts to
poetry and song. Teachers' Handbooks and accompanying cassettes containing
material essential for the courses are also available. (Routledge)

The book represents an approach which is intended to give readers a general
insight into what translators really do and to explain the concepts and tools
of the trade, bearing in mind that translation cannot be reduced to simple
principles that can easily be separated from each other and thus be handled in
isolation. On the whole, the book is more process- than product-centered.
Translation is seen as an activity with an intentional and a social dimension
establishing links between a source-language community and a target-language
community and therefore requiring a specific kind of communicative behavior
based on the complex question "Who translates what, for whom and why?" To the
extent that the underlying principles, assumptions and conclusions are
convincing to the reader, the practical implications of the book, last but not
least in translation teaching, are obvious. (JB)

This book discusses the far-reaching effects translated texts may have in the
target culture and illustrates that translation as a culture-transcending
process is an important way of positioning cultures. The focus is on the role
of translation for the formation of cultural identities, and on effects of
globalisation for translating advertising. The book is made out of two papers,
each followed by an extensive, sometimes hot debate: Lawrence Venuti's
"Translation and the Formation of Cultural Identities" and Candace
Séguinot's "Translation and Advertising: Going Global". It was also
published as an issue of Current Issues in Language and Society
(1:3).

This book raises a wide range of questions and views on translation and
translation studies, with the aim of stimulating discussion and promoting
interest in both teaching and research. The book is largely based on the
author's own analyses and introduces new methods and concepts she has
developed for these purposes. (PL)

The book provides the first nearly complete record of the translations into
English of any major folk genre. Through its introduction the book is among
the first to explore the several ways in which the translations of
oral-traditional material are more problematic than are translations of
conventional literature; identity itself is often elusive. In addition the
introduction conceptualizes ballad translation as a kind of intercultural
communication and is among the first to place the translation of folk
literature within Translation Studies. The tabular format introduced by this
book provides an analysis of every translation in terms of the sociocultural
tradition, era, and genuineness of its source; the presence of original
language and music; and the translator's strategy.

This publication represents the eighth volume of Translation
Perspectives, a monograph series published periodically by the Center for
Research in Translation at Binghamton. Several of the essays included in it
were first presented at a conference entitled "Religion, Politics, Ideology"
which was held in spring of 1994 and sponsored by Cornell University's
Religious Studies Program.

This volume is of particular relevance to literary and filmic translators, to
translation theorists and to anyone with an interest in translation as an art.
Throughout the majority of the essays in this volume, translation is projected
as a complex creative task and not as an exercise in simply re-encoding the
meaning of an ST. The received superiority of the original is ultimately
questioned here. The customary binary divide between original and translation
or copy, and between author and translator is forcefully challenged as
cinematic and literary translation is presented as an essentially creative
process. Whether highlighting specific author-related problems or whether
focusing on the broader issues of the ethics of translation, of cultural
transmissibility or of obsolescence, the general thrust of these essays seeks
to demonstrate the authorial credentials of the translator. (Rodopi)

This volume contains 10 research papers from the International Conference on
Interpretation held at the University of Turku in 1994. The contributions look
at conference interpreting, community interpreting and court interpreting from
a variety of angles, and also discuss cognitive aspects of the process, memory
performance, and acquisition of research methodology. Contributors include:
Valeria Darò, Peter Jansen, Gabriele Mack & Lorella Chattaruzza,
Viera Makarovská, P. Padilla et al., Franz Pöchhacker, Christina
Schäffner, Marianna Sunnari, Jorma Tommola & Johan Lindholm, Livia
Tonelli & Alessandra Riccardi. The volume can be ordered from:

Centre for Translation and Interpreting
University of Turku
Tykistokatu 4
FIN-20520 Turku, Finland

TRANSST serves as an information clearinghouse for the Committee for
Translation Studies of the International Comparative Literature
Association (ICLA/AILC) and for the Scientific Commission on
Translation and Interpreting of the International Association of
Applied Linguistics (IAAL/AILA)